COVID-19 test positivity rate shoots over 10% in 144 districts; watching hospitalisation, death patterns in states, says govt

However, the country’s top health administrators are still calling the rise in cases a low-level wave and an indication of the disease getting endemic in India.

“So far, there is no indication from the COVID-19 genomic surveillance consortium INSACOG that there is any worrying variant causing the rise in cases or TPR, so it looks like the disease is now endemic in India and will keep triggering small scale waves,” said a senior official in the public health division of the Union health ministry.

Similar views were echoed by another official in the ministry who said that there was no major concern yet though the government was on constant vigil to monitor hospitalisation rates and deaths in states.

‘No protection from uncomplicated infections’

Some experts feel that a problem that is likely to continue is the immunity through COVID-19 infection or by vaccines currently protects against severe disease, but not uncomplicated infections.

“Each infection allows the virus to further evolve, leading to new lineages with immune escape capable of fresh infections,” wrote Anurag Agarwal, a biologist with Ashoka University who was previously the director of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, on Twitter.

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Ankita Baidya, consultant, infectious diseases with HCMCT Manipal hospitals in Delhi, too underlined that the rise in cases was evident in clinics and hospitals.

As an infectious disease physician, she said, she is concerned that while two months ago, despite significantly high TPR, patients mostly had mild symptoms with almost no severe disease and hardly anyone requiring intensive care unit admission, that was not the case now.

“This time, we are seeing that the symptoms of loss of taste and smell, respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms are seen in more exaggerated form,” she said, adding that some people are also requiring ICU admission due to sudden increase in the rate of cardiac and pulmonary complications.

‘Virus should not be taken lightly’

Dr Baidya said that the pathogen should not be taken lightly as it is mutating and new variants are possible every now and then.

According to her, the strains currently circulating are also showing some moderate to severe cases of COVID-19 infection which was actually not seen two or three months ago.

“So we should be on alert and not let our guard down. If the booster dose of the vaccine is due, people should get themselves vaccinated,” she stressed,

Parinita Kaur, a specialist in internal medicine with Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital in the national capital also said that with cases rising every day, and a positivity rate of over 10 percent in many parts, there is a definite need to exercise caution.

“People have stopped wearing masks; as a result, we can see a surge in the number of people with respiratory symptoms coming for OPD consults,” said Dr Kaur.

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According to her, whole households in many instances are getting affected and the actual numbers of infections may be much higher but many symptomatic people are either not getting tested or are using rapid antigen test kits at home which does not get reported to the authorities.

“The recovery is quite good as far as the data shows, but we have seen surprises with COVID-19 earlier as well, so it’s best to stay cautious,” she emphasised.